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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Last Friday, Trevor and I hoped across the Smoky Mountains to see my parents at their and my sister's cabin in the Franklin area.

When it was time for lunch we wanted to go simple and just enjoy our time together. We had an impromptu picnic in the back yard with a menu of sweet Silver Queen corn on the cob, a salad with homemade honey-mustard dressing, warm rolls and this grilled chicken which reminded me of roadside chicken.

I'm a fan of roadside chicken. It is also called church chicken because it is a common recipe served at fund raisers and church covered dish gatherings. Typically, the chicken is marinated for hours in a marinade of vinegar, oil, and seasonings then grilled over open pits.

This version is faster because it skips the marinade and is simple, it only has 6 ingredients. My mom got this recipe from Joyce Thompson shortly after my family moved to Florida (I was yet to be born) in 1967. Joyce got it from her aunt in Mississippi and it was just called "BBQ sauce".

Anytime that I am cooking chicken pieces with skin on, I like to grill it over a lower temp fire for a longer period of time in order to avoid flare ups, avoid burning the skin, and to properly render all of the fat. You can use it on whatever chicken pieces you like, but we enjoyed it with wings twice this week.

Roadside Chicken Wings

by www.nibblemethis.com

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients (12 wings)

You'll Need

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup canola oil

4-6 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp Morton's Season-all or other all purpose seasoning

1.5 tsp ground black pepper

3 lbs chicken wings whole

Recommended Equipment

long handle tongs

long handle basting brush

fast response cooking thermometer

timer

Instructions

Preheat a charcoal grill to medium low heat (300-350f). If grill is adjustable, increase the distance between coal and food by either lowering the coal tray or raising the cooking grates. Make sure grate(s) is cleaned and lightly oiled.

Place the butter, oil, lemon juice, 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp all-purpose seasoning in a grill safe pan and stir until the butter is melted and combined. Move off heat but keep warm.

Season the wings with the remaining all purpose seasoning and pepper.

Place wings on the grill and cook 5 minutes, then flip and cook another five minutes.

Now lightly baste (excess dripping onto coals will cause flare ups and greasy soot) the wings and keep flipping every 5 minutes until golden brown and reach an internal temperature of 175-180f. Because we are cooking at a lower temp and further from coals, this could take about 20-30 minutes.

TIP: To avoid the inevitable dripping and flare ups, move the chicken to a quarter sheet pan or other container and baste, then return to over the hot coals.

At the cabin I cooked the chicken on a Weber OTS that has been there for ages, still works like a champ. There's a reason Weber is the most popular grill around. Yes, I know it is scandalous for an Egghead to say that.

Recommended tools include long handled basting brush, long handled tongs, super fast Thermapen, and a timer.

The recipe called for Season-All but you can use any all-purpose seasoning. Here are some of my favorites.

Morton's Season-All: good balance of salt/celery seed/chiles, bit coarser texture, and gives good coloring to grilled foods since it contains paprika and annatto

Lawry's Seasoned Salt: The "original" to me, it has a finer texture and a more pronounced salt flavor. Lighter in color so it's good for recipes that you don't want tinted by the paprika or cayenne of the others.Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning: Bold two pronged flavor of salt and heat, this one wakes up many dishes for us. Drapers BBQ AP Rub: It may have been meant for the grill/smoker but we use this as an all-purpose seasoning on so many things, including a light sprinkle on fried foods just as they come out. It is our go to all purpose seasoning. Sadly I'm almost out and Shane is reformulating his AP Rub with his packer so it'stemporarily unavailable.

For some extra flavor, I added 4 Kingsford hickory Briquets to the already burning coals.

Chicken with skin on often causes flare ups. The lower temp and raised cooking grate help minimize this but you still may have to shuffle pieces around.

You can baste directly over the coals but the dripping oil will cause smoldering, sooty fires. I prefer to remove wings to a tray, baste, and put back on the grill.

If you do baste over the coals, shake off the excess from your brush and baste lightly.

Here is a great chance to check out some of the best BBQ around. What is the difference between a BBQ contest and a BBQ festival? Primarily in a contest, the only people eating BBQ are the judges and a festival is about feeding the crowds, celebrating all things BBQ. The organizers have pulled together an all star line up of teams to feed throngs of hungry festival goers including:

Shane and the other organizers have made this an event FOR THE PUBLIC. There will be music, food, cooking demos, and other great activities. They will also have a "backyard" cooking contests which are fun because it is strictly first timers only, no ringers. You don't want to miss this one, I am looking forward to it.

I haven't thought about roadside chicken in a while. Your wings look delicious and good tip about cooking over lower heat. You are too funny though - "When it was time for lunch we wanted to go simple and just enjoy our time together." Around here those words mean a bologna sandwich - fried if we want to go all out :-).